When a Maryland nurse violates a patient safety rule - just doesn't do her job of monitoring a patient, in this case a child who was ventilator dependent - the consequences for the child patient can be fatal.

In this Maryland medical malpractice case, the child had a genetic disorder that made it difficult to breathe on his own at times so he was provided with a home health nurse to monitor his condition - clean his tracheal tube, check to make sure his airway was clear, and make sure the ventilator was working properly when he needed supplemental oxygen. Those were the nurses responsibilities.

But the health agency sent an inexperienced nurse, one who hadn't worked with ventilator dependent children.

After cleaning the child, the nurse did not attach the ventilator monitor (an alarm would go off if the oxygen saturation fell below a certain level). Then she left the child alone.

The mother came home to find the nurse in the kitchen and her young child in respiratory distress. Despite CPR and being rushed to the hospital, the child died.

Like all of us - bus drivers, accountants, construction workers, lawyers, we all have rules to follow. And nurses, doctors, hospital techs, specialists, consultants are no different. Everyone in healthcare has rules to follow - rules that are in place to keep patients safe.

So if you think someone you know was seriously injured because someone in healthcare didn't follow the rules, or a hospital didn't have a system to make sure the right thing was done, call us or send us a confidential email. We'll give you as much information as we can about preventable medical mistakes in D.C., Maryland or Virginia and holding the healthcare system accountable for breaking the rules.

Like all of us - bus drivers, accountants, construction workers, lawyers, we all have rules to follow. And nurses, doctors, hospital techs, specialists, consultants are no different. Everyone in healthcare has rules to follow - rules that are in place to keep patients safe.

So if you think someone you know was seriously injured because someone in healthcare didn't follow the rules, or a hospital didn't have a system to make sure the right thing was done, call us or send us a confidential email. We'll give you as much information as we can about preventable medical mistakes in D.C., Maryland or Virginia and holding the healthcare system accountable for breaking the rules.

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